When you install an app or piece of software, what you're really doing is installing new behaviors. New functions. New habits.

I heard this idea years ago and it stuck immediately. Neo in matrix was able to learn kung fu in a seconds, and on some level of abstraction we can "learn" how to navigate the city simply by installing maps application with door to door navigation.

Not just that. By installing Facebook or Twitter we are also installing our habit of checking the feed, the behavior of clicking like. The psychological loop of digital interaction.

So we needed to choose carefully. Shape yourself intentionally and carefully.


That was around 2016. Back then I also thought: because we integrate with software, we're creating an advantage. A programmer who truly integrates with their IDE has an edge over one who doesn't know the shortcuts. We've always had augmented intelligence at our fingerprints in a form of: notes, phones and software.
We just never realized that.


Of course software can fail. Google Maps has sent plenty of drivers into lakes. You still need your own brain on top.

And there were always less productive applications like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram etc. Addictive, unproductive ones, with algorithms that tries to harvest on our lower instincts, by pushing controversy, sex, violence, polarization.

But here's this: those apps are also a mirror. Look at your TikTok feed and you see what kind of person you are. Not your opinion of yourself. The reflection of your actual choices. What behaviors win. What you decide to watch.

10 years later

I wrote a blog post about this a decade ago. And the main conclusion still holds!

Back then I was thinking about programming and software, and today I am broadening this philosophy and a way of thinking on AI. The interface - phone, voice , typing remained the same, but we have new category of solutions to integrate with.

As I said before, we always kind a had augmented intelligence. You could not remember all groceries, so you wrote id down - like additional capacity for your brain. AI is not different in a sense.

When you use AI, what you're really doing is installing new behaviors. New functions. New habits.

That's still integration between human and computer.

What you are actually integrating is important. Will you soon forget how to do basic stuff? Can you still navigate city without google maps? What type of cognitive tasks you want to delegate and what type of habits you want to install?

On Facebook, or TikTok the algorithm is your mirror, while with AI the mirror is ... well you and only you. You have to be self-aware. You have to reflect on your own patterns.

Most readers of this are probably adults. Self-aware (or not - say hi in the comments if you're a bot). But what about kids? That's another post.

We've been just been upgraded.

We have new

Functions

Habits

Behaviors

Are you self aware enough to make a right choices?

Funny thing is we have reached augmented intelligence long before we even had AI.we just didn't know.

Till the next time. Thanks for being here.

And if you are a bot - tell something funny about your human in comments. ;)

[only images in this text were generated - the rest is crafted]